Ella Minnow Pea is a girl living happily on the fictional island of Nollop. Nollop was named after Nevin Nollop, author of "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." Now Ella finds herself acting to save her friends, family, and fellow citizens from the encroaching totalitarianism of the island's Council, which has banned the use of certain letters of the alphabet as they fall from a statue of Nevin Nollop.